The chain has expanded its retail space in the city after knocking together its former shop with the former HMV next door. The larger shop will open on Saturday, creating 30 new jobs and making a total of 90 core employees with the existing 60-strong team who will relocate from the old store.

The firm said the new store will boast a bigger range of footwear and clothing as well as exclusives from brands such as Nike, adidas, Lacoste, The North Face, Supply &amp; Demand, Brookhaven, Duffer and Hype.

The Journal revealed last July how the high street chain launched plans to transform one of the biggest stores on Newcastle’s main shopping street into a gym and shopping complex.

But now it has said that it has abandoned the gym plans and will be dedicated the entire premises to retail.

A company spokesman said: “The original plans to have a JD store and JD Gym combination have changed.

“As we were progressing other JD megastores, and in particular our flagship on Oxford Street, it became clear that the ground floor alone was not large enough to encompass the full product range that was relevant to the Newcastle consumer.

“We therefore made the decision to take the first floor as well for JD which did not leave sufficient space for the Gym requirement.”

The fashion and sportswear company operated from a sizeable store for many years, but expansion plans were triggered when its neighbour, the music, film and game shop HMV moved into a new unit in intu Eldon Square.

After gaining planning permission JD sent in construction crews to convert the block of two buildings into a retail complex covering two floors.

The store will open at 9am on Saturday with DJs, dancers, exclusive promotions and chances to win prizes throughout the day.

JD has over 350 stores across the UK and is continuing its global expansion with the opening of new stores across Europe including France, Spain, Holland, Germany and Ireland.

The sports fashion name announced plans in 2014 to expand further into leisure, by opening its own chain of value gyms.

That first under the JD Gyms brand opened in Hull, with further gyms opening in Preston and Liverpool.